‘Roses are red, violets are blue…’ sometimes doesn’t work so well. You have a strong need to express your love like the great poets of old, but where do you start? And how do you add a few modern day sayings into your love letter?

A love letter is a classic way in which to declare your love, and seeing as its a hundred year old practise and has never died out, it must work? You need the following:

Paper (preferably not the kind with red hearts on – that is obvious and can easily look cheap)

A pen (make sure it writes, so that there aren’t ugly scribble marks on your letter)

Imagination (and a touch of fantasy!)

This is how it’s going to work…

A love letter can be as personal as you make it. If you want to write him a letter that could just as easily have been read in the open, then that’s fine. If you want to write something that is meant for his eyes only and only in the bedroom (preferably when you’re not nearby, or the light is switched off), then that’s also fine – even better! You must write about your feelings, what you think and what you like. You letter can be flowery and poetical, or simple and direct. It depends on your personal style and you should not sound like a stranger (unless you for example give it to him from the ‘love police’!)

There are different styles…

There are different styles for a love letter – it can be as tame or as wild and erotic as you would like it to be. A love letter can be as simple as: “I love you and I’m thinking of you, xxx”. Or it can be an erotic, sexy letter that tells your partner exactly what you’d like to do to him, how long you’d like to do it to him and how it’s going to let you feel…

If you’d like to write a historical love letter, you can describe how you met, when you realized he was the one for you and how you enjoyed your wedding day. Your love letter can also be futuristic, by talking to him about your dreams for your relationship and the places you’d like to visit with him.

The receiver

Your love letter is about your life partner and how you feel about him. Be honest and specific. It’s the nicest thing to receive a love letter and it also opens up your emotions and feelings. You’ll maybe experience a deeper level of emotions and love because you maybe put your feelings into words for the first time and then you hear it. Your partner’s maybe more open and emotional after he has read your love letter and you expressed your emotions so openly.

The writing

As far as it goes with the writing, you may experience problems. Not everyone knows where to begin. Maybe you know exactly what to say. If you’re not so lucky, and if you want your letter to be exotic or poetical and you don’t know how to get it that way, get a few things to help you. Read books, magazines and other people’s declarations of love on the internet to get inspiration. You can page through your photo albums or memory box. Go and sit quietly in a corner and think what it’s you really want to say. If you get inspiration from other sources remember to make it your own.

Focus on emotions

Remember that your emotions must form the core of your love letter. It’s what it’s all about. Not about jobs and activities, but how you feel about your partner. Ask yourself the following questions: How did you feel when you saw him for the first time? Were you afraid on your first date? If you can’t answer how you felt then you have a big problem, because love is about feelings and how it’s going to make him feel when he reads the letter.

The delivery

There are so many creative ways to deliver the letter. If it’s a Christmas love letter, place it under the tree or hang it on the tree. If your partner goes to the gym daily, put it in his gym bag. Leave it on his seat in the car or under his pillow. If he’s going away, you can pack it into his suitcase. Put it into his cereal box or in his underwear drawer. The options are endless…

And most important: Don’t let it become a task, enjoy the writing!

Do you still have your hands in your hair?

Georgia O’Keeffe wrote love letters to photographer, Alfred Stieglitz. He was married, but Karma was reliable, and after the two were married he also cheated on her. We can now read her letters for inspiration – it was published last year as part of the Whitney-Art Gallery’s new exhibit. Here are some of them:

From New York

13 June 1918

You will be here in a few minutes I guess but I have to get up and write you – it’s necessary – I must – I’ve been lying here listening for you in the dark – my face feels so hot Aching for you way down to my finger ends – an actual physical ache –

As I came up the street into the sunset after supper – I wondered – can I stand it – the terrible fineness and beauty of the intensity of you – I do not know – may yet have to run away – it seems almost too much –

And lying here – wanting you with such an all ache – not just wanting – loving – feeling – all the parts of my body touched and kissed – conscious of you

A volcano is nothing to it

No words I know say the hotness – consumingness of it

Still I some way feel I can be quiet when you come can control myself

Feeling it grow though—I seem to feel that the moment will come when I can’t control myself when I’ll be blind and mad

…

The woman you are making seems to have gone far beyond me – Almost out of sight